2. Content area addressed: English Reading Standards for Literature Grade 10 Reading Standards for Informational Text Grade 10 Writing Standards Grade 10
3. Worked with teacher: Lisa Pillarella
4. Title of Project: If You SEE Something, Should You DO Something?
5. Description of Lesson: Using non-fiction e-books for research to make a pro or con argument - Resources Used:The Apache Wars: The Final Resistance (e-book) Daily Life During The Indian Wars (e-book) Darfur: African Genocide (e-book) The Rwandan Genocide (e-book) - Grade Level: 10th Grade - Lesson Goal: Students learn how to use e-books accurately and effectively. - How do you know the goal was achieved? Students wrote persuasive essays concerning an individual’s responsibility to take action – or not - when a wrong is being committed. They read Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Weisel’s Night, and compared Jews in Nazi Germany during World War II to the plight of American Indians and Africans in Darfur and Rwanda.
6. Tips on implementing at another school: The students enjoyed experiencing the e-books on the “big screen” (SmartBoard), but they loved it when they could borrow them on their personal devices. Inasmuch as I myself am still a novice in this format, the children took to it like a fish to water.
7. Lessons Learned: The next time I order e-books I will try to find titles that multiple students can borrow at the same time. Although this was a really nice way to expose them to the e-books I purchased, for purposes of researching non-fiction titles, multiple-borrowing capability allows for greater access when an entire class is working on a particular assignment.
8. Plans for usage of material next year: I will encourage students and staff to make use of our e-books. In addition to the non-fiction titles, I ordered via the Grant, Follett provided us with free additional titles, mostly classical literature, i.e. 19th Century English/American fiction. Lesson Plan: If you see something, should you DO something?:Writing A Persuasive Essay Aim: How do you borrow and browse an e-book? 1. The assignment is to develop a persuasive essay relating to the culpability of those who witness wrongful actions but do nothing to stop them. We have a class set of Boyne’s, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, provided by the New York Public Library through interlibrary loan. We also have a class set of Weisel’s, Night, provided by the Curtis English Department bookroom.
2. Students have read the Boyne novel and excerpts from Night. By way of comparing and contrasting the horrors of genocide across the ages and continents, the class read excerpts from four non-fiction e-books: The Apache Wars: The Final Resistance, Daily Life During The Indian Wars, Darfur: African Genocide, and The Rwandan Genocide.
3. For the purpose of this particular lesson, we selected the “Read Online” feature to demonstrate the e-books via the SmartBoard in Ms. Pillarella’s classroom. Students were shown how to access the Curtis Library homepage and search the catalog for e-books. Students have individual access accounts set up with their names and OSIS numbers so that after we familiarized them with “borrowing” procedures, they may do so on their own whether in school or at home. E-books that are checked out circulate for two weeks at which time they return automatically to the “shelf.” Follow Up: Ms. Pillarella has provided me with two sample essays that appropriately incorporated information obtained from our e-books.
Lesson Plan: If you see something, should you DO something?: Research and eBooks
Lesson 1: How do you find an e-book in the Curtis Library Catalog? Guided question: How do you find an e-book in the Curtis Library Catalog? Note: Prior to going to Ms. Pillarella’s classroom, I created log-ins so that the students could access and borrow e-books through Destiny rather than FollettShelf. Ideally, the students can then check for both print and online materials in one search rather than two separate ones. In class, I demonstrated on the SmartBoard how to search the catalog using “Keyword,” “Title,” and “Subject” (e.g. genocide, Darfur, world war, American Indian). I then distributed the handout with log in instructions. (Handout #1) Lessons 2 & 3: How does using e-books enhance our research capabilities? Guided question: How does using e-books enhance our research capabilities? Note: For these lessons Ms. Pillarella brought her class down to the library. Since there are only 22 computes in the media center and this particular class has 34 students, Ms. Pillarella divided the class in two. On two separate days, we allowed 17 students to search the catalog while the other 17 discussed proof of genocide in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Night. Lesson 4: What information did we gather from our searches that supports our arguments for or against intervention? Guided question: Did you find the experience using e-books pleasurable, helpful, or of no consequence? Students presented information that they printed from the e-books. For the most part, they liked the fact that they could mark up the printouts – unlike print materials that they borrow from the library. (Handouts #2, #3, #4, and #5) Lesson 5: How likely are you to use e-books for future projects? Guided question: What other classes require research reports and would you like more e-books for pleasure reading? We randomly called on students to read excerpts from their essays that contained citations from the e-books. (Sample #1 and #2) All students agreed that social studies classes would definitely benefit from the e-books. All students agreed that they would like to see more popular fiction titles added to the catalog.
If you see something, should you DO something?
Librarian: Rita Dougherty, rdoughe@schools.nyc.gov
Grade Levels: 9-12
1. Purchases: 211 e-books from Follett (Dewey 959-973)
2. Content area addressed: English
Reading Standards for Literature Grade 10
Reading Standards for Informational Text Grade 10
Writing Standards Grade 10
3. Worked with teacher: Lisa Pillarella
4. Title of Project: If You SEE Something, Should You DO Something?
5. Description of Lesson: Using non-fiction e-books for research to make a pro or con argument
- Resources Used: The Apache Wars: The Final Resistance (e-book)
Daily Life During The Indian Wars (e-book)
Darfur: African Genocide (e-book)
The Rwandan Genocide (e-book)
- Grade Level: 10th Grade
- Lesson Goal: Students learn how to use e-books accurately and effectively.
- How do you know the goal was achieved?
Students wrote persuasive essays concerning an individual’s responsibility to take action – or not - when a wrong is being committed. They read Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Weisel’s Night, and compared Jews in Nazi Germany during World War II to the plight of American Indians and Africans in Darfur and Rwanda.
6. Tips on implementing at another school: The students enjoyed experiencing the e-books on the “big screen” (SmartBoard), but they loved it when they could borrow them on their personal devices. Inasmuch as I myself am still a novice in this format, the children took to it like a fish to water.
7. Lessons Learned: The next time I order e-books I will try to find titles that multiple students can borrow at the same time. Although this was a really nice way to expose them to the e-books I purchased, for purposes of researching non-fiction titles, multiple-borrowing capability allows for greater access when an entire class is working on a particular assignment.
8. Plans for usage of material next year: I will encourage students and staff to make use of our e-books. In addition to the non-fiction titles, I ordered via the Grant, Follett provided us with free additional titles, mostly classical literature, i.e. 19th Century English/American fiction.
Lesson Plan: If you see something, should you DO something?:Writing A Persuasive Essay
Aim: How do you borrow and browse an e-book?
1. The assignment is to develop a persuasive essay relating to the culpability of those who witness wrongful actions but do nothing to stop them. We have a class set of Boyne’s, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, provided by the New York Public Library through interlibrary loan. We also have a class set of Weisel’s, Night, provided by the Curtis English Department bookroom.
2. Students have read the Boyne novel and excerpts from Night. By way of comparing and contrasting the horrors of genocide across the ages and continents, the class read excerpts from four non-fiction e-books: The Apache Wars: The Final Resistance, Daily Life During The Indian Wars, Darfur: African Genocide, and The Rwandan Genocide.
3. For the purpose of this particular lesson, we selected the “Read Online” feature to demonstrate the e-books via the SmartBoard in Ms. Pillarella’s classroom. Students were shown how to access the Curtis Library homepage and search the catalog for e-books. Students have individual access accounts set up with their names and OSIS numbers so that after we familiarized them with “borrowing” procedures, they may do so on their own whether in school or at home. E-books that are checked out circulate for two weeks at which time they return automatically to the “shelf.”
Follow Up: Ms. Pillarella has provided me with two sample essays that appropriately incorporated information obtained from our e-books.
Lesson Plan: If you see something, should you DO something?: Research and eBooks
Lesson 1: How do you find an e-book in the Curtis Library Catalog?
Guided question: How do you find an e-book in the Curtis Library Catalog?
Note: Prior to going to Ms. Pillarella’s classroom, I created log-ins so that the students could access and borrow e-books through Destiny rather than FollettShelf. Ideally, the students can then check for both print and online materials in one search rather than two separate ones.
In class, I demonstrated on the SmartBoard how to search the catalog using “Keyword,” “Title,” and “Subject” (e.g. genocide, Darfur, world war, American Indian). I then distributed the handout with log in instructions. (Handout #1)
Lessons 2 & 3: How does using e-books enhance our research capabilities?
Guided question: How does using e-books enhance our research capabilities?
Note: For these lessons Ms. Pillarella brought her class down to the library. Since there are only 22 computes in the media center and this particular class has 34 students, Ms. Pillarella divided the class in two.
On two separate days, we allowed 17 students to search the catalog while the other 17 discussed proof of genocide in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Night.
Lesson 4: What information did we gather from our searches that supports our arguments for or against intervention?
Guided question: Did you find the experience using e-books pleasurable, helpful, or of no consequence?
Students presented information that they printed from the e-books. For the most part, they liked the fact that they could mark up the printouts – unlike print materials that they borrow from the library. (Handouts #2, #3, #4, and #5)
Lesson 5: How likely are you to use e-books for future projects?
Guided question: What other classes require research reports and would you like more e-books for pleasure reading?
We randomly called on students to read excerpts from their essays that contained citations from the e-books. (Sample #1 and #2) All students agreed that social studies classes would definitely benefit from the e-books. All students agreed that they would like to see more popular fiction titles added to the catalog.